GOP Attacks Obama With Gas Price Cudgel, While Media Ignores Refinery Closures

As the stock market and overall economy slowly improve, the GOP continues to blame President Obama for rising gas prices as November's election approaches. A barrel of oil is now selling for $106, reflected in $3.77 average gallon prices at the pump. The drumbeat of the GOP message is constant: The Obama administration is at fault for limiting oil companies' access to potential domestic sources in environmentally-fragile locations.

This narrative has dominated media coverage, as Jocelyn Fong insightfully dissects on Media Matters. Yet almost totally absent from the news has been how oil companies are pinching off the supply of gasoline by shutting down refineries. Strangely, this is occurring at a time of plentiful domestic oil supplies; the United States now exports more oil than it imports.

But NPR recently broke the mold of poor mainstream coverage—much of which blames rising prices on increasing tension between Iran, Israel and the United States—by broadcasting a story about the curious chain of refinery shutdowns on the East Coast. The United Steelworkers union (USW), which represents many oil refinery workers, has also been calling attention to three shutdowns in the Philadelphia area; two other refinery have closed on the East Coast during the last two years.

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